Ever since man has been making scaled representations of physical things, proportional scales of various types have been found useful. One of the simplest types of proportional scales are the well known triangular architects' and engineers' scales. Another type of proportional scale is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,810,392 to Clark.
In order to ease the often tedious job of mapping land surface contours and boundaries, various types of automatic surface mapping machines have been developed. These machines typically are used to outline horizontal boundaries, map vertical contours, or both, at reduced scales; see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,441,153 to Jefferson; U.S. Pat. No. 1,643,604 to Gast; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,920,633 to Dannenberg et al. One drawback with these automatic mapping machines is their mechanical complexity. This complexity increases the cost to the user thus making the prior art machines economically unavailable for use by persons for whom the need exists but who cannot justify or afford the cost of such complicated mapping machines.
Therefore, what has been missing from the prior art is a simple, inexpensive apparatus by which the general horizontal outline or boundary of a land surface area, such as a green on a golf course, can be mapped onto a sheet of paper.